Observation/Reflection #2: Eyes in the Back of Your Head: Observing Student ActionsFrom a seat in the rear of the room, observe your students and take notes on what they are doing while the teacher is presenting in the front of the room, while they are supposed to be taking notes, doing seatwork, and/or when they are working in the lab. Look closely at each student for a range of behaviors, and resist the temptation on only see what you expect. Note especially what is happening furthest from the teacher.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
I was seated in the back of the room while the students were working on their lab reports on the computer. While I was observing I really didn’t see a lot of off task behavior. It was mainly isolated to the back row of 3 students. One student was on facebook and also looking at different things like stuff to buy etc. One student to the left and another one in the front of the student started talking about what was on the page and the beanbags and what they got at Target, etc. As the teacher made her way towards the back of the room, to my surprise the student did not close the page or make any effort to hide what she was doing. My CT didn’t make a big deal out of this and just asked her if she was finished, to which she replied no but I was absent on Friday. My CT said well the data we are recording was taken when you were here so you can follow along with us. The student then closed the page and opened a word document to begin typing up her lab report. The teacher then began going over what she needed to do. As she was doing this other students started finishing up and talking in British accents, talking, laughing etc. My CT simply stated that they could go on the class website to the study stacks if they had finished. The students complied and the talking and laughter was then focused around the study stacks they were working on instead of on non-educational topics.
Student engagement is very important in order to maintain control and maximize learning. It is important to have back up activities that the students can do if they finish their assignments before the time allotted. This is where over planning is beneficial and important. The use of technology and having a class website which allows for students to engage in fun learning activities can be very useful in terms of student engagement. Also being over prepared and creating interesting lessons that require students to participate is essential in keeping students engaged.
I like the idea of a class website or wikispace where students are allowed to go during periods of time when they might be finished with an assignment but others are not. However, not all schools are fortunate enough to have a lap top computer for every student let alone in their classrooms. In cases where accessing the class website from the classroom is not feasible I will have to come up with other things that the students can do during these times. I could have extra credit worksheets in a folder that they can work on or maybe an area with bean bag chairs where the students can sit and have access to flashcards, self-tests, or maybe even some games that the class created on the topic. I think an area like that would encourage students to focus on their work in order to have a little time to just even sit in the bean bag chairs and I also feel it enhances the overall atmosphere of the learning environment.
What strategies are used by your CT to encourage students to attend and engage? Watch carefully how your CT moves around the room. Draw a map of the classroom and sketch a path showing (approximately) this movement.
How important is student engagement to your view of how you will teach? What strategies will you employ to encourage student engagement?
I was seated in the back of the room while the students were working on their lab reports on the computer. While I was observing I really didn’t see a lot of off task behavior. It was mainly isolated to the back row of 3 students. One student was on facebook and also looking at different things like stuff to buy etc. One student to the left and another one in the front of the student started talking about what was on the page and the beanbags and what they got at Target, etc. As the teacher made her way towards the back of the room, to my surprise the student did not close the page or make any effort to hide what she was doing. My CT didn’t make a big deal out of this and just asked her if she was finished, to which she replied no but I was absent on Friday. My CT said well the data we are recording was taken when you were here so you can follow along with us. The student then closed the page and opened a word document to begin typing up her lab report. The teacher then began going over what she needed to do. As she was doing this other students started finishing up and talking in British accents, talking, laughing etc. My CT simply stated that they could go on the class website to the study stacks if they had finished. The students complied and the talking and laughter was then focused around the study stacks they were working on instead of on non-educational topics.
Student engagement is very important in order to maintain control and maximize learning. It is important to have back up activities that the students can do if they finish their assignments before the time allotted. This is where over planning is beneficial and important. The use of technology and having a class website which allows for students to engage in fun learning activities can be very useful in terms of student engagement. Also being over prepared and creating interesting lessons that require students to participate is essential in keeping students engaged.
I like the idea of a class website or wikispace where students are allowed to go during periods of time when they might be finished with an assignment but others are not. However, not all schools are fortunate enough to have a lap top computer for every student let alone in their classrooms. In cases where accessing the class website from the classroom is not feasible I will have to come up with other things that the students can do during these times. I could have extra credit worksheets in a folder that they can work on or maybe an area with bean bag chairs where the students can sit and have access to flashcards, self-tests, or maybe even some games that the class created on the topic. I think an area like that would encourage students to focus on their work in order to have a little time to just even sit in the bean bag chairs and I also feel it enhances the overall atmosphere of the learning environment.